i am getting ready to start a long project and i just wanted to hear some opinions. i don't have a lot of money so this is going to take a couple of years and i'm just wondering where people usually start. the car is a 1984 firebird that is pretty much junk except for the body. i want to do a 350 crate engine and a built 4 speed. it will just be drivin pretty regularly but not daily and probly won't see the track that often so i'm looking to make a fun street car. i'm thinking of doing this one system at a time and i'm wondering if you guys would start with powertrain and build around that or start from suspension, brakes etc... just wondering what you guys would do with a good body and all the time in the world! and if anyone has any tips on researching something like this that would be awesome as this will be my first project car. thanks!!!!

 

you can do both at the same time. take the body off the frame and work over the engine/tranny and rear end all at the same time as the suspension and frame work

 

how do you plan on pulling the body off the frame on a uni-body car???

personally, i'd start with suspension. if you build up a badass motor and just drop it in there, you're going to run into all kinds of problems with brakes (not enough braking power for the amount of hp being put out) and suspension parts.

 

 

also, what trans are you looking for?? if you're looking into 4-speed maunal, good luck on finding one for cheap (cheapest Muncie 4-speed i found was nearly $2k). now a 4-speed auto is easy to find, just look on ebay or hit a junkyard.

 

i definitely want to do a 4speed automamatic. my mustang is manual and i wanna do the firebird a little bit different. plus the firebird will probly see the track every once in a while and for that i prefer a nice auto. yea i was leaning toward brakes/suspension first. i just want to research everything and have a good plan so i end up with a well rounded car. i dont want to just start throwing parts at it. i want the interior and exterior to be pretty much stock but i'm gonna do black on black. the interior is pretty torn up and somebody tried to paint the panels and it is just in horrible shape.

 

i am planning the car around this engine http://www.jegs.com/p/GM+Performance/752506/10002/-1. its a carb'd 350. not sure about the transmission yet. i want to do disc brakes all around. still researching things. interior components for this car a more expensive and harder to find than i thought haha. it is really going to be fun though

 

on my project i started by tearing EVERYTHING out. all of the drivetrain and suspension is out of the car and in the back of my shed. aside from the motor and tranny. ill do a little suspension work, bear brakes ( i get them cheap so), gears in the rear, and a pretty well built .060 350 tpi. im in that same boat as you are as far as the money is. its a slow project for me. i bought a daily driver just so i could do this project the way i wanted to. i work full time but i got a ton of bills so its a SUPER slow process for me right now.. lol

but like you said, its a TON of fun. im having a blast with all this. Its one thing to tear things apart, but a hole different story when it comes to putting it together. but i just redid a good chunk of my grand am's motor, and if i can get those modern PITA motors back together and running better than before, i think i got this!! lol

 

Yeah, what I do when im strapped for cash in a project like this, I start by tearing things out, grinding them down, and painting them. Doesnt cost much to do that, and thats half the battle is getting crap to look nice...

 

i'm not having a whole lot of luck with that. most everything inside my car is trashed. no one took care of this thing at all. what kind of paint do you guys use to do interior panels? mainly the ones in the hatch area. someone before me tried to paint them but it is a horrible job. my car is half white half black on the inside